In my latest game I used storage crates instead of dumping it on the ground, but the large storage crates only have a 32 cap wich is not enough so I upgraded them to stone chests but the heartling only store inside those chests and do not want to use stuff in the chest to, craft, build, eat or plant.
I also tried the wooden-leather-chest, the heartling did grab stuff from the stone chests only to place them inside the wooden-leather-chests if there was space in the new storage item. and the same thing happened with the wooden-leather-chests
plz help.
thank you.
Does anyone know why my hearthlings do not grab stuff from stone and wooden chests…? (they only grab stuff from those storage items to move them to other storage items, not using them for food, crafting, building or planting
I’ve taken a look at your savefile but didn’t see anything wrong in it.
I saw them picking up food from the leather chests to eat, and the Weaver also collected some wool from them to craft.
All of the crates/chests look quite full, so I made an additional stockpile outside so that they had more places to restock items (was confused that some crickets weren’t restocking). There are all kind of items in all the storages so hearthlings will pick up whatever they find first. 
I looked at the order que for my blacksmith and carpenter, they will have something in their order que in green for ever and just idle and talk to people, they only work when the items are on the ground or in wooden crates but they cannot hold many items, the same is happening with my herder who does provide the sheep with food eventough I have enough.
I saw all the sheep going to eat from next to the leather chests, but not sure if they took the food themselves or was the shepherd who put it in a bad place.
Let me double check your carpenter and blacksmith. 
Edit: They are crafting just fine. I did set the game speed to normal, though, but set it higher afterwards and they keep crafting the next item. Sometimes if there are many things to process they might have less time to find the items if the speed is higher.
I saw the carpenter picking up ingredients from the ground, a crate and a chest for the same recipe without problems.
I restarted the game again and it suddenly works except for the sheep dying because of starvation, but that i can live with.
thank you